For five hundred yen, a clerk wrote Donkey Kong Jr. over someone else's finished game.
On July 15, 1983, the Famicom went on sale in Japan with three games: Donkey Kong, Popeye, and Donkey Kong Jr. Three cartridges, for a console that nobody yet knew would matter. Five years later, in July 1988, Donkey Kong Jr. came back — not as a cartridge this time, but as a disk for the Famicom Disk System. A disk was not something you kept the way a cartridge was kept. In the shops stood a machine called the Disk Writer, and for five hundred yen a clerk would take whatever game was written on your disk — finished, abandoned, no longer wanted — and write a new one over it. So for many of the people who brought Donkey Kong Jr. home in 1988, their copy came into being by erasing something else first: someone's finished adventure, someone's game that had run its course. And it would not be the last thing written there. Someday, for another five hundred yen, Donkey Kong Jr. itself would be erased — on some afternoon, for whatever the next owner wanted more.
As a child, this game caught me off guard. Mario — the one who was always supposed to come and rescue you — is standing in front of the cage as the “villain,” getting in your way. That shock, like being betrayed by someone you thought was on your side, I remember it even now.
As an adult, I learned why it turned out this way. The creators actually wanted Donkey Kong himself to be the star, but that huge body was hard to move as a character. So they made a small “son” instead, and left the big one up top, still captive. A technical dead end gave birth to a new hero.
Come to think of it, the Mario of the first game was also an improvisation born from constraint. Nintendo has so many of these “pivots out of a dead end.” When they hit a wall, instead of turning back, they step sideways and open a different door. That repetition, it seems to me, is what built these masterpieces.
I think about that while I repair this one console. A dead end is not the end. Sometimes it is the very place where a move no one has ever seen is born.
About this game
The Famicom Disk System edition of Donkey Kong Jr., released in Japan on July 19, 1988 — five years after the 1983 cartridge that launched the Famicom. By 1988 the Famicom was already being outgrown, and Nintendo put its oldest games back into circulation on rewritable disks, where a shop's Disk Writer kiosk would overwrite whatever you were finished with for 500 yen.
Gallery
The Story Behind
The Famicom went on sale in Japan on July 15, 1983 with three games: Donkey Kong, Popeye and Donkey Kong Jr. This page is not that cartridge but its later life — the Famicom Disk System edition of July 19, 1988, five years on, when the Famicom was already being outgrown. The Disk System changed what owning a game meant. Its disks were rewritable, and shops kept a kiosk called the Disk Writer where, for 500 yen, a clerk would overwrite whatever game was on a customer's disk with another one. A disk was therefore not a permanent object in the way a cartridge is: it held what was last written to it, and it could hold something else tomorrow. For collectors this remains the defining practical fact of the format — the printed label describes the disk, not necessarily the game currently written on it.
Tricks & Tales
In the shops stood a machine called the Disk Writer. For 500 yen a clerk would take whatever game was written on your disk — finished, abandoned, no longer wanted — and write a new one over it. Many copies of the 1988 Donkey Kong Jr. came into being by erasing something else first. Donkey Kong Jr. was one of the three games that went on sale with the Famicom itself on July 15, 1983 — the others being Donkey Kong and Popeye. Five years later it returned on the format least built to last.
Collector's Guide
Region & Compatibility
The Famicom Disk System was sold exclusively in Japan and was never officially released in any other region. It was designed as an attachment to the original Famicom, using a rewritable magnetic Quick Disk format — a medium that no longer has manufacturer support and that Nintendo ceased rewriting or selling decades ago. Buyers outside Japan should understand that there is no Western-compatible equivalent: FDS software requires a Famicom console, the RAM adapter, and the dedicated power adapter, all of which are Japan-market hardware. The disk media itself is not readable by any standard floppy drive.
Maintenance Tips
The drive belt is the most critical maintenance item. The original rubber belt (approximately 31mm diameter) stretches and eventually fails after decades of storage, preventing the drive from reading disks. Replacement belts are widely available from retro hardware suppliers and require no special tools -- a documented procedure exists in multiple collector guides. After belt replacement, the drive may need alignment, which is a more involved process. The RAM adapter board contains electrolytic capacitors that should be recapped if the unit is used regularly -- leaking capacitors can damage the PCB and corrupt disk reads. Clean the battery compartment with vinegar and a cotton swab if corrosion is present. FDS disks should be stored in their cases away from magnetic sources.
Going deeper
Explore the machine this game ran on, and what to check before you buy or care for one:
What to Watch Out For
Before buying, these are the points worth knowing — from someone who handles original Japanese Donkey Kong Jr. copies regularly.
Is this the same as the 1983 Famicom cartridge?
No — they are different products, and both are genuine. The cartridge is the original: it went on sale on July 15, 1983, alongside the Famicom itself, one of only three games available on day one. This page is the Famicom Disk System edition, which followed five years later, on July 19, 1988.
What do I need to play a Disk System game?
A Famicom alone is not enough. Disk System games require the Disk System drive and its RAM adapter, which sits in the Famicom's cartridge slot and connects to the drive. A disk will not run on an unmodified Famicom or an NES by itself.
Does the label on a Disk System disk guarantee what is on it?
Not always, and this is the single most useful thing to know about Disk System collecting. Shops kept a machine called the Disk Writer, and for 500 yen a clerk would overwrite a customer's disk with a different game. A disk therefore carries whatever was last written on it, which is not necessarily what the label or the sleeve says. Check what actually boots, not what is printed.
Is the data on a thirty-five-year-old disk still safe?
Treat it as fragile. These are magnetic disks, not cartridges — the data is written on a surface that ages, and copies do fail. Cartridge-based games from the same era are far more forgiving of time.
Before You Buy
Things worth knowing before you buy Donkey Kong Jr.
A short checklist for buying a used Famicom Disk System disk wisely — useful with any seller, anywhere.
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Choose a seller who tests it before shipping
A copy that has actually been powered on and checked is a known quantity. An untested one is a gamble you only settle after it arrives.
Look for a seller who states it was function-tested and says what they confirmed. A serious seller can tell you exactly what was checked.
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Inspect the disk and its shell
Disk System media is fragile — the magnetic disk can wear, and saves are written back onto the disk itself.
Ask whether it was tested and reads reliably; look for cracks or a warped shell in photos.
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Make sure it fits your console
This is Japanese Famicom Disk System media and requires a Famicom with a working Disk System drive.
Play it on a matching Japanese console or a region-free system, and confirm the listing states the region.
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Mind the drive belt on the console side
Disk System drives commonly need a replacement belt to read reliably — this is a console matter, not the disk.
If reading is unreliable, the console's belt is the usual culprit, not the game.
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Read the seller's reviews and return policy
A 100% positive record across thousands of sales is close to a guarantee — packing, communication and problem-solving all work for everyone. A return policy protects you if something is off.
Read the feedback and confirm a clear return window before you buy.
The last step before buying anywhere is knowing what it's worth.
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Rooms this game lives in
Wander deeper — explore the themed rooms where Donkey Kong Jr. sits alongside its kin.
Memories from around the world
This is a young museum, and this page is still waiting for its first voices. The memories people send reach Taisei personally, and the ones that move him find a home here over time — always with the writer's blessing. Yours could be the very first for this game.
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